Originally Posted by
livedarklions
"Gender specific" geometry is generally just a guess based on pitting the "average" woman vs. the "average" man. As in all other fit issues, no one is actually average, and virtually everyone diverges from average in one or more aspects, so it's completely unsurprising that some men would find "women's" bikes a better fit and some women prefer "men's".
After WWII, the Air Force figured out that a huge number of crashes during the war were caused by the cockpit being designed for the "average" pilot, which in practice meant that it was poorly designed for everyone.
Exactly what is your alternative? Make a custom-designed airplane or bicycle for everyone? If you're going to manufacture something to fit humans in mass quantities, you have to pick some sizes and go with them. Most bicycle buyers are not going to pay the money it would cost for a custom-made frame, and with carbon fibre in particular that would be exorbitantly expensive since molds are used. The best you're going to get is taking "average" people in a range of sizes and making the thing to fit them, and it's absolutely true that average men have different proportions than average women so that justifies the manufacturing cost of women's-specific bikes at the higher price points.